>> Narrator: Everyone wonders,
"who could bring terror to the
"
>> there were a number of
theories.

00:04:01

It might have been a drug deal.

00:04:03

It could have been a robbery.

00:04:04

There are all these other sort
of normal, usual scenarios that
would explain what happened in
that bedroom.

00:04:11

>> First 24 hours, we didn't
know what happened.

00:04:14

That was the first time in 35
years I ever locked the house.

00:04:17

>> They felt like this place
that we had seen as an oasis was
violated.

00:04:21

Suddenly, there was this huge
gash in the middle of it, and
nobody knew what to make of it.

00:04:27

Nobody knew what the story was,
and everybody had a theory.

00:04:31

>> Narrator: Then detectives get
a huge break.

00:04:35

Rudy manuel makes a miraculous
recovery.

00:04:38

Despite having a bullet lodged
in his brain, he remembers
everything about the attack and
tells detectives he and bonnie
had closed the lodge at around
3:00 a.m.

00:04:49

Shortly thereafter, an armed
intruder burst through the
bedroom door.

00:04:54

>> And she said, "who are yo
"
and he says, "i know you,
"
and rudy came after him.

00:05:03

And he shot rudy first.

00:05:05

..

00:05:08

..

00:05:10

Middle of his forehead.

00:05:11

>> Narrator: The gunman then
shot bonnie once through the
temple and disappeared.

00:05:17

>> I can't imagine what people
back in newport beach were
thinking when they heard
that bonnie was found in her
bedroom with the handyman.

00:05:26

It was a shocking finale for the
golden girl from orange county.

00:05:31

>> When she walked into a room,
she would just light it up.

00:05:34

I remember at my mom's funeral
the man who spoke said,
"describing bonnie hood is like
describing a rainbow to a blind
"
>> Narrator: According to family
and friends, beautiful bonnie
was always the center of
attention.

00:05:50

In college at san jose state,
her magnetic personality
attracted a fellow freshman
named james newman hood, the son
of a top executive at general electric.

>> They were clearly in love,
and they had a relationship that
was obvious to anybody that knew
them that was going to continue
on.

00:06:21

>> Narrator: After college, the
couple got off to an adventurous
start.

00:06:25

Jim took a civilian job in
vietnam, and bonnie worked as a
stewardess on military flights.

00:06:31

>> Before one of her flights,
she got a typhoid immunization
shot, and she had an allergic
reaction to it.

00:06:38

She was paralyzed from the neck
down.

00:06:40

My dad flew down from vancouver,
and he said, "bonnie, when you
can walk 30 feet, I'm gonna
marry you.

00:06:46

"
when she could walk 30 feet, she
flew up to canada and visited my
dad and said, "you didn't think
"
>> Narrator: In the late '60s,
the couple married and started a
family in the exclusive
oceanfront community of
newport beach.

>> Narrator: The mountains
always held a special place in
bonnie's heart.

00:08:28

When she was a child, her father
would take the family on summer
vacations to camp nelson.

00:08:33

>> My mom grew up camping there,
and she decided to share that
joy with us by taking us camping
there as kids.

00:08:40

>> Narrator: When bonnie learned
the lodge had come up for sale,
she jumped at the chance for a
new career and a new lifestyle.

00:08:47

>> Kind of started out as a
joke, like, "ah, yeah, we'll buy
"
then my parents talked, and it
turned out to be something that
was possible for them.

00:08:58

So they made it happen.

00:08:59

>> Narrator: In 1987, bonnie and
jim became the new owners of the
camp nelson lodge --
an historical stone-and-timber
resort featuring a 10-room
hotel, a bar and restaurant,
surrounded by 40 acres of lush
horse pasture and spectacular
scenery.

00:09:16

Bonnie had big plans for the
rustic resort.

00:09:19

>> She spent a lot of money, and
she fixed the rooms up and fixed
the lodge up.

00:09:23

I guess the main thing would be
that she brought it back to
life.

00:09:26

She's the one that put
camp nelson back on the map.

00:09:30

>> My mom had always had this
dream of having a ranch.

00:09:33

And my dad's always wanted to
help her fulfill that dream.

00:09:35

A place where she could have her
horses and really have the open
space -- the lodge was the key
to that.

00:09:42

>> It was definite a family
effort.

00:09:44

We got a tractor.

00:09:45

My mom literally drove this
refrigerator truck around.

00:09:50

My dad had helped repair the
roof.

00:09:53

We all kind of helped out.

00:09:55

>> Narrator: Rather than
relocate the family, the hoods
decided to try something new --
a commuter marriage.

00:10:03

On weekends, she'd shuttle back
and forth from the resort to
newport beach.

00:10:07

During the week, she'd help the
children with homework by phone
and fax.

00:10:12

>> It wasn't just, "my mom's up
..

00:10:17

Leaving the kids and the husband
"
it's just not how it was.

00:10:20

A weekend that we weren't up
there, she would come down.

00:10:23

It was always just very normal.

00:10:26

>> While bonnie was living out
her childhood dream, jim was
taking exotic vacations --
trekking through the amazon and
running with the bulls at
pamplona.

00:10:37

There were whispers that the
marriage was in trouble.

00:10:41

>> We had already learned about
the relationships between bonnie
and her husband, jim.

00:10:46

Strained.

00:10:47

They spent a lot of money on the
lodge.

00:10:49

I recall jim having financial
difficulties with some
commercial investments that he
had.

00:10:53

>> The real estate business in
southern california got a little
bit rocky.

00:10:58

It wasn't a rising tide lifting
l boats.

00:11:00

Investigators speculate that
with jim's business taking a
hit,s pet project became
a source of tension.

00:11:07

>> Camp nelson was becoming a
money pit.

00:11:10

They paid $750,000 for it.

00:11:12

And the restoration was costing,
I think, more than they had
imagined.

00:11:16

>> Everything was hemorrhaging
money, and there wasn't anything
to pay it back with.

00:11:20

>> Narrator: It seemed the
hoods' gilded age had come to
an end.

00:11:24

And so, apparently, had their
undying devotion.

00:11:27

>> I think the longer she was up
there, the less she felt she had
in common with him and the more
adamant she was about what she
was doing.

00:11:35

And the more he was separated
from her, the more he wanted to
be doing his own thing.

00:11:38

And I think the cracks that
might have been there --
hidden -- started to become
fissures in their relationship.

00:11:45

>> There was talk of divorce.

00:11:47

He was upset with her
squandering money on the
lodge -- and then the
relationship she had developed
with rudy.

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00:16:18

>> Narrator: Weeks after
bonnie hood's murder, both
jim hood and his dead wife
become the targets of a media
feeding frenzy.

00:16:27

>> It's so easy for them to
rs had slowly
taken
the word "allegedly" out of
their paragr
suddenly, it just became fact.

00:16:39

>> Narrator: They say talk of an
affair and financial trouble is
totally unfounded.

00:16:43

>> The locals have it.

00:16:45

They had it wrong about my mom
and -- about my mom's and rudy's
friendship.

00:16:50

And that's all it was.

00:16:52

It was a friendship.

00:16:54

>> My dad, before my mom died,
..with
cash.

00:16:59

He never had any type of
financial issues, so why would
he need insurance money?

00:17:04

The man sold million-dollar
properties on a regular basis
and had several of his own in
assets.

00:17:10

To me, it was ridiculous.

00:17:12

>> Narrator: Family and friends
claim bonnie's troubles weren't
at home but up at camp nelson.

00:17:18

Weeks before her murder, tension
with locals had escalated.

00:17:22

>> She told me that she had been
threatened and her windshield
had been broken -- and that
people were, basically,
threatening her life, and that
she had taken her horse into the
mountains and found a drug field
owned and operated by the people
out there.

00:17:38

>> She had a lot of information
on a lot of things in
camp nelson in a filing cabinet
there that disappeared.

And our thinking was, "we take
him to trial for the murder, for
the shooting, and after he's
convicted, he's gonna start
asking for a deal prior to
sentencing and give up
"
>> Narrator: With no evidence
linking james hood to
bruce beauchamp, the prosecution
faces a huge challenge.

00:21:49

They must try to convince jurors
that the murder was a burglary
gone bad.

00:21:54

>> The real story was not coming
out.

00:21:57

It wouldn't until after we
convicted bruce beauchamp.

00:22:00

And we were biting at the bit
for this thing to culminate and
come to an end and find him
guilty, so we could get on with
the case.

00:22:07

And we were prepared and ready
to do that.

00:22:10

>> Narrator: But the theory
doesn't hold up in court.

00:22:13

>> The prosecution's theory of
the case for bruce beauchamp
made no sense.

00:22:18

Without jim hood it wouldn't
work.

00:22:21

It's too random.

00:22:22

>> Narrator: Then other problems
begin to surface.

00:22:25

>> The star witness was
rudy manuel.

00:22:28

You don't pick your cards in
these things.

00:22:30

You play with what you're dealt.

00:22:33

And rudy manuel had an extensive
criminal record.

00:22:37

>> If you can paint the victims
as somehow unsympathetic, even
if it looks like that person
committed that crime, if the
jurors don't like the victims,
they may find reasonable doubt
where there is no reasonable
doubt.

00:22:52

>> Narrator: When the jury
returns, they find
bruce beauchamp not guilty.

00:22:56

As he walks from the courtroom a
free man, investigators realize
the true story of what happened
that night might never come out.

00:23:05

>> Once beauchamp was acquitted,
I think there was almost no
chance that the cops could get
jim hood.

00:23:12

>> So it was frustrating because
we were geared up and ready to
go to southern california
again -- because we knew once
bruce was convicted, he would
talk.

00:23:20

>> Bruce's acquittal appeared to
kill any chance investigators
had at getting justice for
bonnie.

00:23:28

But what goes around, comes
around.

00:23:31

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00:28:03

>> Narrator: Bruce beauchamp's
acquittal in the murder of
bonnie hood is a huge blow to
investigators.

00:28:09

>> When you lose one in court,
when they're acquitted and you
know you've got the guy -- you
know, but the jury comes back
with their decision.

00:28:22

Those hang with you for a long
time.

00:28:24

>> Narrator: Jim hood returns to
newport beach to raise his
children.

00:28:28

But the stigma haunts him.

00:28:30

>> We really ignored the rumors
that were in the paper.

00:28:33

My dad was amazing at not
breaking down -- never was in a
bad mood, always positive, and
100% and more there for us.

00:28:45

>> I felt it from my friends.

00:28:46

I felt it from everywhere around
me.

00:28:48

All of a sudden, I was a bad
guy.

00:28:50

I was the criminal just because
the paper had said something bad
about my dad.

00:28:55

But the one place I didn't feel
it from was my dad.

00:28:58

>> Narrator: The hood family
seemed to be putting the past
behind them and moving on with
their lives.

00:29:15

Just months after bonnie's
murder trial, the san bernadino
county sheriff's department gets
an urgent call from
mission plaza shopping complex
located in fontana -- the office
of james hood.

00:29:36

On the floor, dead, his body
riddled with bullets and a gun
clenched in his hand, is
bruce beauchamp.

00:29:51

>> I'm sitting in the newsroom
of theorange county register,
and I can see my editor
mike lednevich walking over
to me.

00:29:57

And he said, "you'll never
"
he goes, "there's a murder in
"
I said, "well, who was the
"
"
"
"
and it was like, "jim hood?

00:30:09

"
>> Narrator: Jim hood admits he
pulled the trigger, but swears
it was self-defense.

00:30:14

Hood tells detectives he was
receiving threatening
calls from beauchamp.

00:30:19

>> And he had told me on a
number of occasions, he was
concerned for his life.

00:30:23

>> Narrator: Hood says the two
agreed to meet to work out their
differences.

But beauchamp's body, as
investigators are about to find
out, wasn't the only thing full
of holes.

00:30:55

>> If beauchamp came in with the
intention of killing or somehow
intimidating jim hood, how'd he
let himself get shot seven
times if he's the thug?

00:31:02

>> There was a number of things
that didn't match up.

00:31:05

There was two pools of blood and
a smear in between which meant
that the body had been moved.

00:31:12

This guy who was just riddled
with mortal wounds had a gun in
his hand -- had fallen down,
still had a gun in his hand.

00:31:20

And that didn't make any sense.

00:31:22

>> Narrator: Two days later,
james hood is arrested and
charged with murder.

00:31:26

Everyone familiar with bonnie's
case is stunned.

00:31:29

>> I remember thinking to
myself, "here we go.

00:31:33

Here's the conclusion of our
"
>> it was like two different
stories.

00:31:37

One was, here was this crazy man
who was acquitted of killing
jim hood's wife, and now he was
going after jim hood.

00:31:44

And the second narrative was
that jim had hired him to kill
his wife.

00:31:47

He'd gotten away with murder,
couldn't be tried again because
of double jeopardy, and now was
extorting -- blackmailing jim
for all he could.

00:31:55

>> It was extremely frustrating
to have the media coverage talk
about my dad the way that they
did.

00:32:03

The way that they painted my dad
was he's this rich, white,
newport beach developer who
comes up with this shrewd plan
to -- for conspiracy to murder.

00:32:18

..it was just the most
absurd thing.

00:32:23

>> Narrator: But investigators
think otherwise.

00:32:25

A friend who drove beauchamp to
hood's office that day tells
detectives bruce removed the
hunting knife from his pocket
before he left the car because
he didn't want to appear
threatening, in case hood called
police.

00:32:38

>> He definitely knew it was not
gonna be a nice, little
chitchat.

00:32:42

But I do not think in a
million years he thought he was
gonna get shot.

00:32:46

>> Narrator: Then investigators
get the hard evidence they need
to close the book on hood.

00:32:52

C.S.I.s CAN'T FIND ANY BLOOD
Spatter on the gun in
beauchamp's hand.

00:32:56

The gun had to have been placed
there after the shooting.

00:33:00

And whoever did it made a
terrible blunder.

00:33:03

Bruce was a construction person.

00:33:06

Hammered with his left hand,
shot heroin with his left
hand, fired a pistol with his
left hand -- and the gun was in
his right hand.

00:33:14

>> Bruce was left-handed, and
the gun was in his right hand.

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hood had his fingers in
so many pies that even though he
claimed in many instances to be
a multimillionaire, in fact, he
was in a precarious financial
position.

00:39:24

And it is our belief that one of
the reasons that ultimately he
hired bruce beauchamp to kill
bonnie was that he was having a
serious problem nancially and
could benefit from insurance
policies on her life.

00:39:39

>> Narrator: The state believes
that after the acquittal in
bonnie's case, bruce found his
golden goose.

00:39:45

>> Beauchamp starts calling
hood, and, in one instance,
threatens, "if you don't start
dealing with me properly, I'm
"
>> knowing he could not be tried
again for that murder, he tried
to get more money out of jim.

00:40:01

And I suspect jim probably was
giving him some money then just
finally realized he had to put
an end to this.

00:40:06

>> What he meant was he was
going to expose jim hood for his
complicity in the murder.

00:40:12

>> Narrator: The defense sticks
to their theory of self-defense.

00:40:16

>> He had no reason to kill
bonnie hood.

00:40:18

Let the evidence tell you,
let the witnesses show you that
all he has here is gossip,
rumor, suspicion.

00:40:26

>> Narrator: Hood's lawyer
argues that the 911 call proves
he's not a cold-blooded killer
but a man who feared for his
life.

00:40:51

>> Bruce beauchamp was a badass.

00:40:54

He looked like he was not
someone you would want to have
angry at you.

00:41:01

He looked dangerous.

00:41:14

>> Narrator: For the first time
in california history, each side
uses animation to illustrate
their theory.

00:41:21

The state contends
bruce beauchamp wasn't just shot
and killed -- he was mowed down
with seven bullets from hood's
9-millimeter pistol.

00:41:31

Then the state calls a series of
witnesses to dispute jim's
claim of self-defense.

00:41:37

>> Have you ever seen a gun in
the hand of a victim on the
ground, holding a gun in any
fashion?

00:41:44

>> No, I have not.

00:41:46

>> Is that one of the things
that caused you to be suspicious
in this case?

00:41:50

>> That is true.

00:41:51

>> Specifically, have you ever
seen a victim with a gun in that
fashion in his hand at a
homicide scene?

00:41:57

>> No.

00:41:57

>> It was a concrete floor.

00:41:59

And if somebody is dead weight,
they're not gonna keep holding
on to their gun.

00:42:05

>> Narrator: Experts testify
that blood spatter on the floor
around beauchamp's hand proves
the gun wasn't there when he was
shot.

00:42:12

>> I would have expected blood
to have been -- or some blood to
have been -- on the gun or the
hand because there were
blood stains all around it.

00:42:21

And there was no blood stains on
the gun.

00:42:23

The gun had to come there at a
later time.

00:42:26

>> Narrator: The forensic
evidence is a home run.

00:42:29

But the question of motive still
remains.

00:42:32

>> Rich people sometimes get
away with things.

00:42:36

But he must have known he was
taking an enormous risk in
shooting bruce beauchamp.